Chapter VI.
The destruction of Sodom is foretold and divine indulgence is preached in tolerating and examining the sins of the sinners, as well as in forgiving them. The angels come to stay with Lot in the evening. The Sodomites commit an enormous crime and are filled with wickedness. Lot tries to mitigate their fury by offering his daughters, but the angels strike them with blindness. Lot is forbidden to look back and is led away, and how does this also relate to us? Finally, the guilty daughters, along with their relative, are described in the context of incest and the evils of drunkenness.
But when the men arose, they saw the face of Sodom and Gomorrah (Ibid., 16). Just as the visitation of the Lord is shown to those who fear, so too the punishment of sin is given to the wicked. Abraham led the guests, adding kindness to his hospitality. For the Sodomites, on the other hand, in their acts of uncleanliness, increased their wickedness in defiance of their duty of piety.
45. 'I will not hide,' he says, 'what I am going to do with my servant Abraham.' Abraham of course, having reached an old age, as the earlier scriptures attest because he had advanced ninety-nine years, how can he refer to this person as a boy? But when he showed him as one who was not forgetful of his age, indefatigable in his explorations, swift in his running, most patient in his standing, and most eager in his accompanying, does not the name of boy seem to be fitting for his roles? He rightly is called a boy, who did not know the weariness of old age, who showed the innocence and obedience of childhood. Therefore, the grace of blessing is given and the inheritance of posterity.
46. The offense of sins, however, is explained. The cry, he says, of Sodom and Gomorrah is filled (cf. Gen. 18:20). Great is the patience of the Lord, so that He does not immediately punish the sinner, but delays in expectation of correction; nor is He moved to revenge unless the sinner exceeds the measure. Hence, the Lord Jesus also said to the Jews in the Gospel: Fill up the measure of your fathers (cf. Matt. 23:32).
Therefore, I will go down to see if they have done altogether according to the cry coming to me, so that I may know (Genesis 18:21). The Lord did not ignore the sins of the Sodomites, but he spoke these words for the purpose of instructing you, so that you may examine more closely the offenses committed by those whom you consider worthy of punishment. 'I will go down,' he says, 'to see,' that is, you too should go down with care, descend with the eagerness of investigation, so that nothing deceives or escapes you in your absence, and so that you may apprehend the crime with your own eyes. Those placed at a distance can easily be ignorant of many things. But who does the shouting, unless perhaps those whom nothing escapes, seem to cry out, each one's crimes are crying out? Finally, it is said to Cain: 'The blood of your brother cries out to me' (Gen. IV, 10), that is, it does not escape, but it cries out your parricide. Therefore, just as God is aroused by the cries of our transgressions, so that He may avenge at some point, He who willingly pardons.
48. Finally, when Abraham asked him not to destroy the righteous along with the wicked, and he asked, 'If there were fifty righteous people in the city, would you destroy them?' (Gen. XVIII, 24 and 26), he replied: 'I will not destroy the city if there are fifty righteous people in it, and I will save the whole place.' And in this manner, through a series of questions and answers, even if he finds ten righteous people in the city, he promises impunity to the entire people on account of the righteousness of a few. Where do we learn how great a wall is for our country, a virtuous man, how we should not envy holy men, nor disrespect them lightly. For their faith saves us, their justice defends us from destruction. Even Sodom, if it had ten righteous men, could have not perished.
But what does it mean that those men who had come to Abraham together with the Lord sought out Sodom, if not that their crime would be aggravated, if the impious ones attempted to inflict greater sacrilege on those whom the righteous had honored? For the reason why he called them men is clear; because they displayed the appearance of men.
50. They came to Sodom in the evening, at noon to Abraham; because the presence of the angels shines brightly for the just and brings darkness to the impious. However, it can also refer to the time of the Lord's Passion, when they came to him in the evening, who had to be freed from the contamination of the Sodomites and from the destruction of the entire city. It was evening before Christ came; because the whole world was in darkness. It was evening for all those whom the squalor of heinous crimes pressed in darkness. The Lord Jesus came, he redeemed the world with his blood, he brought light. But two angels came to Sodom in the evening (Gen. XIX, 1). Where grace is to be given, Christ is present: where severity is to be exercised, only the ministers are present, Jesus is absent.
51. Lot was sitting at the gate (Ibid.). The holy ones had amended Lot, made him more anxious over the captivity. Thus, by the course of his age, he had learned to imitate his parent. He was sitting at the gate, therefore, so that he might receive the arrivals. Finally, he rose to meet them. He ran forth to meet them more perfectly: that one rose, and prostrated himself on the ground, and said, Behold my lords, turn aside into the house of your servant (Ibid., 1 and 2). And he compelled those to turn aside who said: 'We will stay in the square.' This is praised as true holiness and the grace of angels. They did not want their arrival to appear burdensome to the host: indeed he knew among whom he would be staying; nevertheless, he offered his home to the dangers that he might take away the guests. Certainly, the more slowly they acquiesced, by testing them for a longer time, the more fully they were proven.
But the men of the city of Sodom surrounded the house, from young to old, the whole population alike (ibid., 5). The justice of divine judgment is demonstrated, lest anyone should say: What did the children do, that they should all be involved in the destruction? Thus, there was no righteous person there, no innocent person. Listen to the Scripture testifying that they surrounded the house, from young to old, the whole population alike. No age was immune to guilt, therefore no one was immune to destruction. And he who did not have the possibility of committing the crime had the disposition. The worn-out bodies of the old men, but their minds full of lust. Holy Lot offered the modesty of his daughters. For although that was also a shameful impurity, it was still less against nature to have intercourse than to commit a crime against nature. He preferred the hospitality of his house to the dignity of his modesty, even among barbarous nations inviolable. Finally, there is also unhindered hospitality, where even kinship is not safe enough.
53. However, those angels struck them with blindness, so that they could not find the entrance to the house that they desired to open. Here indeed is declared the wondrous power of the angels, that with blindness poured over them, the doors of the house were not found. But it is also shown that every desire is blind, and does not see before it. Moreover, it is demonstrated by the fact that the holy Lot, called back by the hands of the guests into the house, showed himself forgetful of danger, remembering not to save himself from danger, but to offer.
54. A place of piety is shown, because Lot, a holy man, is instructed through the manifestation of angels, with the total destruction of the whole region, to have his relatives and warn them to flee; lest, by abandoning them or not warning them, he seem to be lacking in piety towards his daughters' husbands: or lest their error be attributed to themselves, who, deprived of their husbands' company, had sought the drunken conceptions of their father. Therefore, the Scripture does not leave the holy man defenseless; since he is shown to have given his daughters in marriage and to have warned his relatives. But it seemed to them that he was joking, and yet Lot still lingered, to persuade his relatives; and he would have almost not escaped, if it were not for the urgent angels holding his hand, he was forced to leave.
55. Therefore, he was not advanced, but brought out: and he received a command not to look back, nor to resist in the whole region, but to ascend the mountain. When this is said to him, it is said to everyone. Therefore, if you want to escape, do not look back, but ahead. Look where Christ is, who says to you: Get behind me, as he said to Peter: Get behind me (Matthew 16:23), so that he may follow Christ, may see Christ. Behind is Sodom full of wickedness, behind is Gomorrah overflowing with vices, a region of crimes. Do not touch, says the Apostle, do not handle, do not taste, all of which are destined for corruption (Colossians 2:21). Therefore, flee Sodom, quickly leave Gomorrah, abandon the elements of this world, lest impending dangers engulf you: do not resist while fleeing, nor linger in the entire region of vices. He who did not look back escaped; she who looked back could not escape.
Excusantur autem filiae sancti Lot, quia putaverunt non vicinae regionis, sed totius orbis fuisse illud excidium, et se solas cum patre superstites ex omnibus populis remansisse. Et ideo ne genus deficerethumanum, paternum petiisse concubitum; ut semen generationis humanae de patre suo resuscitarent. Non ergo libidinis vitium fuit, sed generationis remedium, quod non puto criminis duci loco. Nam et Eva de viro assumpta, supra cujus costam aedificata est mulier, os de ossibus ejus, et caro de carne ejus; tamen propter seriem successionis humanae viro mixta est. Yet the conscience of a just man is affected by this act; for when he was intoxicated with wine, he did not know what he was doing. Hence it is not surprising that the opinion deceived the girls, who believed that the entire population of the world had perished. The excuse of the holy Lot would not be the same, for he had heard from the Angels that only that place, not the whole world, would be destroyed.
57. Surely we learn to avoid drunkenness (15, q. 1, c. Surely we learn), through which we cannot beware of crimes. For those things we avoid when sober, we commit ignorantly through drunkenness. It is not enough that it inflames desire, it ignites bodily desires: it also undermines the mind itself, and captures the soul, wrenching away reason. Those who indulge in excessive wine do not know what they are saying, they lie buried. And so if they have transgressed through wine, they are indeed granted forgiveness by wise judges, but they are marked as frivolous offenders. How great is that very ugliness, that it weakens strength, that the gait wavers?
58. If many consider themselves strong, are they stronger than Lot? Are they more restrained than Noah? Scripture did not expose the vices of the patriarchs, whom we read were defeated by wine, but rather so that you may learn what to avoid. Lot lay naked, succumbing to the error of his daughters. And Noah, a righteous man, was deceived because the power of wine was still unknown to him. But you have been instructed so that you may not remain ignorant. Lot trusted his daughters and, in his old age, drunkenly engaged in incest unknowingly. Drink in moderation, lest you be ensnared. Instruct yourself to the Patriarch not only as a teacher, but also as one who wanders. Therefore, the example of drunkenness is reiterated, so that the authority of caution may be confirmed.